Often this Gospel is used as an occasion to prove
the Church's control of the forgiveness of sins and even to demand more frequent
confession. The Church, in this perspective, has a monopoly on forgiveness and must be
stern in its use. Patently this narrowly circumscribes the passionate forgiveness of God
which Jesus came to reveal. God may be generous with forgiveness, it is implied, but the
Church cannot and should not.

Yet the story of Thomas, immediately after suggests that
such an interpretation of the words of Jesus missed the points. To forgive is not a right
to be jealously guarded, but an obligation to be exercised generously. We do not earn our
own forgiveness by forgiving others. Rather we manifest the generosity and implacability
of God's forgiveness of us.

Fr. Greeley's Last Book:

Story:

Once upon a
time, a man, attempting a bank robbery, shot and killed a young woman who was a teller. He
was a worthless man, a drug addict, an abuser of women, a cruel, vicious, evil gangster.
The young woman's family was Catholic. They hated the man. They could hardly wait for the
trial. They sat in the courtroom, their eyes filled with hate throughout the trial. When
the jury found him guilty they cheer. When the judge sentenced him to death, they yelled
with exhaltation and exchanged high fives. They waited impatiently for the day of his
execution.

They told the media that they would experience "closure" to the
tragedy only when they watched the lethal chemicals flow into his body and his face twist
in death agony. They waited years for all the appeals to be exhausted. In prison the man
went through a conversion experience and begged for forgiveness. The family refused to
grant it. It's a fake they said. He just wants to save his rotten life. He asked for
forgiveness from the execution chamber. They spit in his direction. They cheer again when
he died.

As they were leaving the prison, the dead woman's sister said to her brother, I
don't feel closure, do you? No, he said, I don't either.

2 Let Israel say, "His steadfast love endures for
ever."
3 Let the house of Aaron say, "His steadfast love endures for ever."
4 Let those who fear the LORD say, "His steadfast love endures for ever."
13 I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the LORD helped me.
14 The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.
15 Hark, glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous: "The right
hand of the LORD does valiantly,
22 The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.
23 This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day which the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in
it.

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